Post-Lockdown Life: Christie Brinkley, Don Lemon, JLo, Lorraine Bracco & More

Following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s declaration that fully reopened New York State, friends are once again visiting each other’s homes, but some Hamptons celebrities are still playing it safe. For others, quarantine left its mark after a difficult year and situations and relationships haven’t ended well.

Christie Brinkley invited CNN anchor Don Lemon, of Sag Harbor, and his fiancé, Elliman broker Tim Malone, over to her Hamptons home for refreshing pink cocktails and some fun with their dogs. “Ahhhh, to hug friends again,” the supermodel posted on social media.

Bridgehampton’s Lorraine Bracco is getting out a little more these days, but on the early side. “I spent a lot of time by myself during the pandemic,” she tells us. “I read. I watched a lot of series I had never seen. I wrote a little book about my dogs. I was okay being with myself.” She shot a movie in Memphis during COVID called Jacir, and her new film, The Birthday Cake, shot before COVID, is out now. If you want to see Lorraine out here, try dining at 5:30 p.m. “I’m all for being vaccinated and still wearing a mask,” she says. “I go out for dinner early when very few people are at the restaurants. It’s like the ‘early bird special’ with me,” she says with a cackle. We’ll be watching.

My recent hunch about the prospect of a Hamptons run-in between exes Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez looks like it may be happening. The former Yankee slugger has reportedly rented a $5 million house in Bridgehampton just a mile down the road from J.Lo’s digs in Water Mill, where the former couple quarantined together with their children from past marriages in 2020. Meanwhile, Page Six reported that A-Rod was spotted partying in the Hamptons on June 19 with Lindsay Shoukas, ex-girlfriend of Jen’s on-again boyfriend, Ben Affleck. Talk about six degrees of separation!

Meanwhile, in other COVID-related news, there is a real-life “War of the Roses” going on in Water Mill. According to the New York Post, Cantor Fitzgerald executive Paul Pion and his wife Stephanie refused to leave their Hamptons rental. Although Pion says the claims are “completely false,” documents were filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court, claiming “Defendants are conducting themselves in a bad faith, dishonest and manipulative way to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic and the mass confusion and gridlock in the lower courts in an effort to, among other things, block the impending sale of the premises.” The Pions have reportedly been renting the $5 million house in Water Mill for $10,000 a month for two years. The home was scheduled to be sold to a buyer for $4,970,000 on June 15, but that sale is now in jeopardy, according to the lawsuit.